A. Meredith Walters: Sometimes all you need is a good cry

A. Meredith Walters, author of Lead Me Not, joins HEA with an alternate view on why romance readers read (other than for the happy ever after!).

Meredith: I'm a sucker for a good, emotional read. The angstier the better.

I love that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach during a particularly raw scene, the knots in your belly, the tightening in your throat, and the burn of tears at the back of your eyes. You know you're on one heck of a ride.

It hurts. But at the same time it feels oh so good.

Am I a glutton for punishment? If I am, I know I'm not the only one.

So why do we put ourselves through the emotional ringer? Why do we sob and heave over books that leave us wrung out and bring on a headache-inducing crying jag?

Because these books show us the gritty, ugly reality we live in. They show us the not-so-pretty sides of life and force us to exist alongside the characters, whether we want to or not.

They pull you in and hold you there, and when you're finished you know you've read things that could quite possibly change how you look at the world.

There's a reason books like The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and If I Stay by Gayle Forman are so hugely popular. Both deal with death in a very real, very poignant way.

It's not pretty. It's heartbreakingly real, but there's that irresistible pull of love and hope at the core of these reads that make them truly magical.

My latest release, Lead Me Not, from Gallery Books, deals with some very serious issues. Drugs and addiction. Death and grief and the lingering effects on someone who has experienced a major trauma. Hitting rock bottom and then trying to pull yourself back up.

At the heart of Lead Me Not is the dysfunctional co-dependence that develops between the addict and their loved one. The vicious cycle that occurs as you walk the fine line between enabling and helping.

It takes a lot out of me to write this kind of story. Lead Me Not left me drained and exhausted. But in the end, these kinds of stories are also the most rewarding.

I felt this when I wrote my Find You in the Dark series, a dark love story about a young man with mental health issues.

And I felt it again while writing Lead Me Not and the sequel, Follow Me Back, which will be released in 2015.

As I created Maxx and Aubrey and continued to weave their at times unhealthy dynamic, I worried it was too dark and too heavy. That maybe it was a little too much.

But I stuck with it.

Because that's life.

And it's not always sunshine and roses. Sometimes we need to be faced with the dark and ugly to appreciate all of the other stuff.

So if you're in the mood for a good cry, pick up Lead Me Not, or my Find You in the Dark series and I hope, rather sadistically, to put you through the emotional wringer.

And when you're done with those, here is a list of some of my favorite "make you cry like crazy" books.

• Loving Mr. Daniels by Brittainy C. Cherry. This is a beautiful story of second chances and forbidden love interwoven with themes of death and grief and learning to move on.

• Raw by Belle Aurora. Amazing story depicting the gritty, ugly world of drugs and obsession. If the ending doesn't make you sob like a baby, you are made of stone.

• Hopeless by Colleen Hoover. Colleen is the queen of making you cry. Every book she writes turns me into a pile of moosh. But I have a special spot in my heart for Hopeless. It deals with some pretty heavy issues but it's handled beautifully.

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. OK, so I haven't read this one since I was 12, but it was the first book I ever read to make me ugly cry. There are some pretty heavy themes of death and self-acceptance that are really important. And then there's that ending. I think it may have scarred my poor adolescent heart for years.